NYC union membership on the rise

Crain's reports:

Union membership in New York City has climbed steadily since the late 1990s, but the increase has not kept pace with overall employment growth, according to a recent study.

The number of New York City residents in labor union rose by 65,455, or 8.3%, between 1997-99 and 2004-06, according to “The State of New York Unions 2007,” by Hoftra University’s Center for the Study of Labor & Democracy.

The Center averaged data for each of the years between 1997 and 1999, and again for the years between 2004 and 2006, to draw comparisons between the two three-year periods.

In total, about 26.4% of wage and salary workers in the city belong to unions, giving New York City one of the highest union density rates -- the percent of all an area’s total employees that belong to a union -- of any U.S. city. Nationwide, the union density rate is 12%.

But the city’s growing membership has not kept pace with overall employment growth, resulting in a 0.5% drop in the city’s union density rate since 1997-99. The current union density rate also remains well below 1980s levels, when 34.4% of New York City residents were in unions.

One reason for the disparity could be that fewer young people are joining unions, with the number of 25-to-34 year-olds in unions declining by 11,000 since the late 1990s.

You might say NYC is a different place.